Mixing apparatus

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to mixing devices, such as food mixers. One embodiment includes a mixer unit which may be removably, sealingly affixed to the top of a receptacle containing the material to be mixed and the combination thereafter inverted during the mixing operation. Thereby a short-shafted universal mixer device may be used with a wide variety of receptacles.

United States Patent Lee 1 Dec.5, 1972 [s41 MIXING APPARATUS 3,064,94911/1962 Dewenter ..259/108 [72] Inventor: Virginia Olga Lee, HomewardLane, 3l28996 4/1964- Weston C MOI'I'IS t 3,376,878 4/1968 Shoemaker..259/99 x Filed: April 28, 1970 Ap l. No.: 32,598

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1957 Schwaneke ..259/108 1/1960Marfuggi ..259/108 Primary Examiner-Jordan Franklin AssistantExaminer-George V. Larkin Attorney-William G. Rhines [5 7] ABSTRACTcombination thereafter inverted during the mixing operation. Thereby ashort-shafted universal mixer device may be used with a wide variety ofreceptacles.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures x H I z z 5 I I| gg fi .4 a

11 lllllllllllllllll PATENTEDDEB 5 I972 VIRGINIA OLGA LEE ENVENTOR.

ATTORNEY I MIXING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION the receptacleand. the mixershaft is inserted into the I types of devices have theadded disadvantage of difficulty in keeping the agitator mechanismclean, since it is usually inconvenient and sometimes impossible toremove and/or wash the entire unit or the mixer portion ofit. f

An attempt has been made to circumvent these disadvantages by making aunit in which the impeller mechanism is an integral part of thereceptacle. Thus,

in these devices, the impeller rests at the bottom of the receptacle andis connected to a clutch means by means of a shaft extending through thebase of the receptacle. In use the receptacle is seated atop a basestructure which includes a clutch portion for correspondinginterengagement with the clutch means on the receptacle. After thereceptacle has been so placed, a motor residing in the base structure isactuated and the impeller is thereby caused to turn. While mixers ofthis design are somewhat easier to clean and do not have the drawback ofdimensional criticality between the shaft length and the receptacledepth inherent in mixers as described above, they still are not entirelysatisfactory since the impeller structures aredifficult to cleanthoroughly and the receptacles are necessarily heavy and cumbersome, andgenerally unattractive decoratively because of the impeller-in-basestructure. In addition, the contents of the receptacle usually must betransferred to another container for serving and/or storage, because themixing receptacles typically are not suited to or attractive enough forthese uses.

Accordingly, objects of this invention are to produce mixer deviceswhich are easy to use and are readily cleanable, and may be used with awide variety of receptacles which are not dimensionally critical to theshaft length of the mixer impeller mechanism.

It is another object of this invention to produce mixer devices whichmay be used with receptacles which are attractive and may be used asserving and/or storage vessels without the necessity of transferringtheir contents to another container.

It will be apparent that the foregoing as well as other objectives areattainable through practice of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one embodiment of the present inventionthereis provided a mixer device comprising a motor in an enclosed housingwith an agitation means, such as impeller blades, mechanically connectedto the shaft of the motor. The housing of the device includes means forremovably affixing the device to an associated receptacle such that thedevice with the. receptacle affixed thereto may be inverted without thecontents of the receptacle, leaking through the juncture between thedevice and the receptacle. The motor shaft may be short and theinterrelationship of shaft length to receptacle height, therefor notcritical dimensionally. Optionally, the device may include a pressureswitch whereby the motor may be actuated by the weight of thereceptacle, or the combined weight of the device and the receptacle.

DESCRIPTION'OF DRAWINGS In the attached drawings, v I FIG. 1 illustratesone embodiment of the presentinvention. I V k i I FIG. 2 illustrates areceptacle which may be used with the embodiment of the presentinvention shown in FIG. 1,'and

FIG. 3 illustrates the embodiment of the present in vention shown inFIG. 1 in use with the receptacle shown in FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIG. 1, there isshown a mixer device 1 embodying the present invention. It comprises ahousing 3 containing an actuating means, such as a motor (notshown)connected to'an impeller 5 or other agitation means, by means of ashaft 7 or other mechanical motion transfer means. Of course, thehousing may be made in any desired fashion or shape from a wide varietyofmaterials, none of which considerations are critical per se to thepractice of the present invention provided the'choice is suitable to theintended use. However, it is particularly advantageous to. make thehousing frommoldedl plastic, since it may thereby be shaped easily,attractively colored, and rendered waterproof so the unit as a whole(when apertures therein for the shaft, and optionally,.the pressureswitch hereinafter described, are also waterproofed according to wellknown techniques), may be immersed in water in order to clean it. Themotor may likewise be of any ofa wide variety of designs and typessuitable for the intended use. Thus, although it might, for example, bea spring actuated motor, an electric motor might also be used, and itmight be battery operated as well as, or in lieu of, beingcord-operated, in order to render it portable. Similarly, the agitationmeans by which the material to be mixed will be agitated may be avaried, propeller-type impeller as shown in FIG. 1 or may be of any of awide variety of other known shapes, such as a bent rod. The agitationmeans may be made from a variety of appropriate materials, although itpreferably is made of a resilient material, such as rubber, to minimizethe possibility of injury to persons should the agitation means becomeactuated while the'agitation means is exposed. Likewise the shaft 7 mayoptionally include a speed reducing or increasing mechanism, orotherwise interconnect the agitation means with the actuating means byany other known or suitable motion transfer means, such as belting andthe like. The device includes an affixation means for removably affixingit to an associated receptacle in which is contained the material to bemixed. The affixation means shown in FIG. 1 is a thread system 8 forinterengagement with a corresponding thread system in the associatedreceptacle. Because the base housing 3 and, more particularly, thethread system 8 thereof is made of plastic, which is relatively soft, itserves as a kind of gasket to effect sealing of the juncture between thehousing 3 and the associated receptacle. Of course, this sealing couldalso be effected with actual gasketing made of rubber or 'other suitablematerial, or other well known means. Of

course, other suitable affixation means could also be used, such asthose shown in the aforesaid US. patents, provided it is of such anature as to ensure against objectionable leakage of the material fromthe receptacle when it and the mixer device are affixed to each otherand are inverted as hereinafter described. The affixation means could bepositioned at any suitable location on the device so that, for example,the portion of the housing enclosing the motor might actually residewithin the receptacle when the device is affixed thereto instead ofoutside it as would be the case with the device shown in FIG. I.

Also shown in FIG. 1 is a switch device 9 for actuating the motor, theuse of which, although optional, is advantageous. Although such a switchdevice might be made in the form of a button projecting slightly fromthe housing 3,or in any of a wide variety of forms which will beapparent to those skilled in the art, as shown in FIG. 1 the switchdevice comprises a flat plate 10 of roughly the same configuration andarea as the adjacent surface of the housing 3. In this form the entirestructure will be positionally stable when inverted. The switch devicemay be so spring loaded that when the mixer device alone is inverted sothat the switch bears its weight, the switch will not be actuated orcausethe motor to operate, but will be actuated when it bears thecombined weight of the mixer deviceand the receptacle. By this means thedevice may be rendered so that'it may rest with the agitation meansupward when not in use with the motor not operating, but the motor willbe caused to operate when the device is similarly positioned but withthe receptacle affixed thereto.

It will also be clear that other weight sensitive switch means may beused. Thus, for example, the mixer device might be so made that theweight of the receptacle alone actuates the switch means, as by sopositioning a pressure sensitive switch with respect to the affixationmeans that this portion only of the device will be actuated throughoperation of the weight of the receptacle. This might be done, forexample, by having the threaded section of the mixer device freefloating" and juxtaposed to the switch means.

As noted above, the switch device utilized may be of any of a widevariety of forms known per se to those skilled in the art, since it isnot the exact form of the switch as such which critical to the practiceof the present invention, and obviously a multitude of basic springswitches, for example, could be adapted in a conventional manner toperform the function herein contemplated. Thus, for example, as is alsonoted above, the spring loading of the switch device 9 may be made tonormally impel the flat plate 10 component of the switch device awayfrom the housing 3 until it is overcome by the added weight of thereceptacle means, the resulting relative motion then being translated inclosure of actuating circuit contact points in a known per se manner.

The switch device, of whatever design, may be supplemented withappropriate safety devices, such as a supplementary switch, to renderitso that it will not be actuated inadvertently. This might bedoneaccording to well known techniques, such as putting a holding coilconnected to contacts in series with the rest of the motor circuit.

FIG. 2'illustrates a receptacle useful in connection with the mixerdevice shown in FIG. l. Although receptacles suitablefor this use may bemade from any of a wide variety of materials, including glass, plastic,or metal, in any of a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors andconfigurations having in mind the artistic, decorative and utilitarianeffects desired, and may be made from heat resisting material toaccommodate hot material to be mixed, and with any of a wide variety ofaffixation means corresponding to the affixation means on the associatedmixer device, the receptacle shown in FIG. 2 is a tapered glass vessel11 with a threaded portion 14 near the top as an interengagingaffixation means corresponding to the affixation threads 8 of the mixerdevice 1 shown in FIG. 1, and a spout 16 formed at one edge of thereceptacle access opening 18 to facilitate pouring of liquified or otherfluid material from the receptacle. Of course, the variety of shapeswhich can be so used include ones which taper to a bottom or baseportion the same size as or wider than the top portion as well as viceversa. v

FIG. 3 illustrates the device shown in FIG. 1 in use with the receptacleshown in FIG. 2. After the material to be mixed is placed in thereceptacle, the mixer device isaffixed to the receptacle at the accessopening therein through useof the affixation means-The receptacle withthe mixer device affixed thereto is then inverted (so that thereceptacle is positionally atop the mixer device) and placed on asurface whereby the combined weight of the mixer device and thereceptacle, plus, of course, any contents of the latter, will overcomethe spring loading of the switch and will cause the motor to propel theagitation means, and the material in the receptacle to be agitated andmixed. After the contents of the receptacle are mixed as desired, thereceptacle and the mixer may once more be reverted and the mixer removedfrom the receptacle, following which the mixer may be cleaned and thereceptacle may be used directly, for example as a table dispenser or arefrigerator storage container (with or without a storage top (notshown) as desired) or the contents may be transferred to some othercontainer. Where a storage top is used, it might include a handle and/ora pouring aperture according to well known designs and construction.

It will also be apparent that it is within the contemplation of thisinvention to include a heating device in the mixer device, such as anelectrical coil or plate, whereby the contents of the receptacle may beheated and/or the heat thereof maintained during mixing.

It will be readily apparent that although the present invention has beendescribed in this application in terms of its use as a food mixer, thisinvention is useful in connection with treating a wide variety of othermaterials, such as paint, for example. Similarly, it is to be understoodthat the embodiments shown and described in this specification, and theterms and expressions used are by way of illustration and not oflimitation, and that a wide variety of equivalents may be used withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the present invention.

lclaim:

1. An apparatus for agitating material comprising a housing, anactuation means enclosed by said housing, a mechanical motion transfermeans connected to said actuation means and extending outside saidhousing, an agitation means affixed to that portion of said mechanicalmotion transfer means which is outside of said housing, an affixationmeans on said housing, a receptacle means having an opening therein anda complementary affixation means for joining said opening to saidhousing with said agitation means positioned within said receptaclemeans, a base on which said housing may be placed while said housingbears the weight of said receptacle means, and a switch device means insaid housing which will cause said actuation means to operate when theweight of said receptacle means bears on said housing and will beinoperative to cause said actuation means to operate when said housingis not bearing the weight of said receptacle means.

2. An apparatus for agitating material comprising a housing, anactuation means enclosed by said housing, a mechanical motion transfermeans connected to said actuation means and extending outside saidhousing, an agitation means affixed to that portion of said mechanicalmotion transfer means which is outside of said housing, an affixationmeans on said housing whereby said housing may be joined to anassociated receptacle means, a base on which said housing may be placedwhile said housing bears the weight of an associated receptacle means,and a switch device means in said housing which will cause saidactuation means to operate when the weight of an associated receptaclemeans bears on said housing and will be inoperative to cause saidactuation means to operate when said housing is not hearing the weightof an associated receptacle means.

1. An apparatus for agitating material comprising a housing, anactuation means enclosed by said housing, a mechanical motion transfermeans connected to said actuation means and extending outside saidhousing, an agitation means affixed to that portion of said mechanicalmotion transfer means which is outside of said housing, an affixationmeans on said housing, a receptacle means having an opening therein anda complementary affixation means for joining said opening to saidhousing with said agitation means positioned within said receptaclemeans, a base on which said housing may be placed while said housingbears the weight of said receptacle means, and a switch device means insaid housing which will cause said actuation means to operate when theweight of said receptacle means bears on said housing and will beinoperative to cause said actuation means to operate when said housingis not bearing the weight of said receptacle means.
 2. An apparatus foragitating material comprising a housing, an actuation means enclosed bysaid housing, a mechanical motion transfer means connected to saidactuation means and extending outside said housing, an agitation meansaffixed to that portion of said mechanical motion transfer means whichis outside of said housing, an affixation means on said housing wherebysaid housing may be joined to an associated receptacle means, a base onwhich said housing may be placed while said houSing bears the weight ofan associated receptacle means, and a switch device means in saidhousing which will cause said actuation means to operate when the weightof an associated receptacle means bears on said housing and will beinoperative to cause said actuation means to operate when said housingis not bearing the weight of an associated receptacle means.